No Exception
by Lorrean
Summary: Danny wouldn't give up this life for anything.


**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Danny Phantom.**

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Another night, another ghostly threat. Such is the routine of the halfa superhero. For as predictable as it might be, Danny wouldn't give it up for the world.

Tonight, or rather this morning, was no exception. It was a quarter past two in the morning and Vlad Plasmius was trying to destroy the city. The older halfa was attempting to break the city by using explosives. Danny would have thought he was dreaming if Vlad hadn't sent his vultures to give him a wake-up call and alarm him of the impending doom.

Sam and Tucker had split up, each moving to disarm the bombs located in different areas before Amity Park was reduced to a crater. Danny was going to the source to try to stop Plasmius and get the detonator.

Vlad was in the very center of the city on the roof of one of the tallest buildings. He made no attempt to hide from the other halfa. Vlad had to have seen him coming, but didn't try to stop the hero from flying all the way up. Standing in the middle of the roof, Vlad looked like he didn't have a care in the world.

"I thought you'd wised up about of all this after that Disasteroid incident years ago," Danny commented. He made sure to take a defensive stance rather than attack Vlad directly; otherwise man would probably trigger the bombs.

"Will you ever give up this dream of being a hero, Daniel?" Vlad's voice sounded far more tired than Danny had ever heard. He was taken interest in that.

"Uh… never? If I remember correctly, you're a cynical, evil billionaire who has done nothing good towards the Fenton family and Amity Park, as well as The Ghost Zone. And you're a seriously crazed-up fruitloop, but I'm sure you already knew that."

Vlad let out a humorless laugh. "I know everything about you, Daniel. I've only been trying to help you for the last five years."

Danny had to scoff at that. "Helping me? You think trying to hurt my family and friends and destroy things is helping me! I figured you had delusions of grandeur, but I didn't think you were just delusional in general."

"Think, Daniel!" Vlad yelled. "Things don't make sense here! Why do all these ghosts choose to come here? Why is it that you, your family, and friends never seem to age? Look at all the things in the world that don't add up for once!"

Danny unconsciously took a step back. He had seen Vlad angry before, but never like this. Gone was the calm, smug ghost hybrid who was always three steps ahead of everyone. Instead all that was left was a frustrated and weary halfa.

"There… There are a lot of things that can explain that," Danny tried to brush away Vlad's points, but couldn't help but think about them. Vlad was right, things didn't add up. But was he really going to believe the words a man known for playing mind games? "You're just trying to confuse me. You just want me to let my guard down so you can try to make me your apprentice or something."

Vlad raised his hand to his forehead and released a low groan of frustration. "Daniel, please. They want to shut this down and this is my last chance to try to wake you up."

"Wake me up? What do you mean?" Danny wasn't sure how to react to any of this. Vlad was acting frighteningly out of character.

Danny was getting frustrated himself now. Vlad had to be just trying to screw up his head. He had probably made up this entire story to try to make Danny question himself.

But the teen wasn't going to fall for it. Just as he came to that conclusion, his communicator chimed. Grabbing it to see who was messaging him, Danny was happy to hear the news from Sam. "Danny, we've disabled the bombs. Get Plasmius!"

Danny smirked. "Sorry Plasmius. I'm sure you had a great story to tell me, but I don't want to hear it." Danny charged at the older halfa intending to finally have him apprehended. Vlad looked shocked, but then his expression changed to sad acceptance. The man grabbed the boy's neck inches before he could throw a punch and hurled Phantom across the roof. Danny was only down for a second, but when he got back up Plasmius was gone.

Disappointed, but not surprised, Danny made his way back to his home to rejoin his friends and get some sleep. They'd catch Vlad someday, even if it wasn't today.

* * *

The white haired man stood over the sleeping boy. For five years he had used state of the art virtual reality technology to try to bring Daniel Fenton out of a coma, but to no avail. And now they were shutting it down.

Vlad Masters sighed. "I'd hoped that he'd listen this time."

His assistant, Terra Markov, put a hand on his arm. "You tried your best. Daniel's mind… just doesn't want to wake up."

Vlad didn't have anything to say to that. He just walked out of the room and hoped Daniel would be happy in his dream.

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 **A/N: As to why Danny fell into a coma, perhaps he got it from one of his ghostly fights (with Plasmius). However, other reasons are also plausible.**

 **Tell me what you thought of the fic, and leave a review.**


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